Welcome.
Please make your way to a comfortable seated position or laying down on your back.
Finding a place where you can find some evenness between right and left.
A place where you can feel the shoulders soft,
The elbows heavy,
The spine long.
Your eyes may close,
You can have a soft gaze in front of you and take a moment to feel the muscles of the face soften.
To feel the jaw loosen,
The chin relax.
Even the sides of the neck start to release here.
Just breathing gently in and out through the nose.
Feel the chest and belly begin to move with your breath.
Starting to notice the wave-like quality of this movement in the chest and belly as you breathe.
In your mind's eye,
I'd like you to envision yourself next to or near a body of water.
It could be any body of water that calls to you,
Whether it's an ocean,
A river,
A pond,
A lake,
It could be a body of water that you've been to before or one that you have seen in pictures or movies.
Any source of water is calling to you in this moment.
It could even be water flowing through a tap out of a faucet into a bath.
Just allowing yourself to feel and notice this water that is near you and the way that it undulates and moves and changes.
The way that it flows and moves even if you're near the stillest pond.
Just feeling the water flow through your body.
Noticing you are breathing gently in and out through the nose.
What is it that you notice about your body of water where you've chosen to place yourself?
What is it that you notice about your water?
Maybe it's energy or it's calm.
It's activity or it's stillness.
What lessons can you draw from this water on your current state of being or on a state of being you'd like to embody?
Water is our universal solvent that is the source of energy.
So many different compounds dissolve into water.
Here today I'd like you to think of,
Take anything that you'd like to release,
Anything you'd like to let go of.
In your mind's eye you can place it into your hands and then give it over to the water.
We're not polluting the water,
We're just settling it free to dissolve.
You might be releasing a physical object,
You might be releasing an emotion,
You might be releasing a memory.
Anything here big or small that you would like to release,
Imagine it coming into your hands and you giving it to the water where it just rapidly begins to dissolve.
After you've released those objects into the water,
You can just let it go.
You can look into the water and perhaps you see something bobbing towards you.
Maybe washing up onto the shore or floating in that tub.
Notice if the water is carrying anything to you,
Anything that you need,
Anything you'd like.
Maybe you can accept this gift from the water.
Noticing what the water in its wisdom wants to bring into your life,
Into your being here today.
Gratitude for this gift.
Then once again resting near the water but not necessarily interacting with it anymore.
We're going to practice our ocean breath,
Our ujjayi breath,
To remind us of the ways that we carry the water with us,
The wisdom of the water,
24-7.
It is always here.
These wave ocean breaths are always here.
We're going to practice our ocean breath,
Our ujjayi breath,
To remind us of the ways that we carry the water with us,
The wisdom of the water,
These wave ocean-like breaths.
So to do our ujjayi breath we'll begin by inhaling through the nose and on your exhale you're going to do it through your mouth as if you're trying to fog up a mirror.
So it's in through the nose,
The exhale is this fogging sound.
Do that a second time in through your nose,
Out through the mouth,
Fog up that mirror.
This time inhale through the nose and on your exhale make the same noise but through the nose.
Take a few more breaths like this.
In and out through the nose with that bit of noise,
That little bit of friction and activity on the exhale.
Knowing that the goal isn't to have the loudest sound but rather the goal is to have enough friction in the throat,
Enough activity in the throat that you can really hear and feel the breath.
Remembering you always have this ocean wave with you.
Now we're going to take a few more breaths.
Try your next inhale in deep,
Exhale through the mouth.
Slowly bring some small movements to fingers and toes.
Slowly opening up the eyes to return to the space around you.
Remembering that you always carry this wisdom of the water with you.
And finding the same fluidity,
Fluidity that you're feeling in the mouth.
And then slowly bring some small movements to the fingers and toes.
Remembering that you always carry this wisdom of the water with you.
And finding the same fluidity,
Flexibility and energy as you move through the rest of your day.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
Have a wonderful day.
